Canglong Jian lay north of Ink Bamboo Mountain. Following the river north into the mountains, it was several hundred li from the Outer Sect's main altar.
The flying boat Lu Yu summoned was considerably faster than Fuling's treasure ship. It raced along like a galloping horse driven by the wind, streaking forward like lightning. Deep streams and sheer ridges, lofty mountains and perilous peaks rolled into view from between the white clouds and mist, only to be left behind in the blink of an eye.
The scenery along the way was just as described in the Commentary on the Waterways: clear rapids and green pools, winding waters and reflected shadows; strange cypresses growing across sheer cliffs, hanging springs and waterfalls cascading down their faces. The landscape was lush, rugged, and full of charm.
After about the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the flying boat gradually slowed. Between two sheer, isolated peaks, a dense mist spread like a gauzy curtain woven from green clouds. It looked like a heavenly gate, draped in pale green silk to conceal whatever lay in the mountain ravine beyond.
Lu Yu stood at the bow and waved the command flag in his hand. A streak of yellow light shot into the mist.
Then a gentle spiritual breeze stirred, and Dao Breath drifted through the air. It was as if an immortal had drawn aside a curtain of green silk, pushing the billowing mist toward the peaks on either side. Beneath it appeared a deep, hundred-zhang-wide ravine and a jade-green pool. The water was a deep blue-green, lustrous as black jade. Bamboo and ravine reflected one another, forming a magnificent scene in which the mountains and the pool shared the same verdant hue.
"Strike the gong."
At Lu Yu's command, Chen Daotong, the boy who cultivated the Crimson Fiend escape technique, gathered his Qi and steadied his breath. He struck the golden bell in his hand three times. "Clang—clang—clang!"
The bell's ringing had barely faded when Li Fan heard a rumbling from the ravine below. Ripples suddenly bubbled across the pool's mirror-smooth surface. A torrent surged from the Spiritual Spring, and the water flowed backward, as if something were about to leap out!
Holy crap, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming!
Unable to contain himself, Li Fan rushed to the bow to look. Chen Daotong and Yuan Xuanbao both took two steps back and opened a paper umbrella together.
The next instant, a thunderclap rang out. Boom! The explosive sound echoed between the mountains. The deep green pool erupted, sending columns of water soaring into the sky! Spray scattered through the wind like a sudden downpour, and sunlight turned it into a rainbow of seven colors.
"Holy crap! They're real!"
Though he was drenched from head to toe by the spray, Li Fan stared at the creatures leaping from the clear pool one after another and circling down onto the sheer cliffs, shouting with wild excitement.
"Dragons are the foremost of scaly creatures. They have nine features: a camel's head, deer's horns, rabbit's eyes, ox's ears, snake's neck, clam's belly, carp's scales, eagle's claws, and tiger's paws. Their backs bear eighty-one scales, the number of nine times nine, the ultimate yang. Their voices ring like bronze plates struck together. They have whiskers beside their mouths, a pearl beneath their chin, and a reverse scale below their throat. A chiwood grows atop their heads. They breathe out clouds and exhale rain."
"Li Fan's mood increased by 1 point."
"Profound Heaven Sword Intent says: What's the host so excited about? They're just Coiled Dragons."
"You don't get it! Damn, if only I had a camera!"
To be fair, the four little dragons weren't very large. The smallest were four or five zhang long, and the biggest were around ten. They were all azure-scaled dragons with black ridges, red bands and patterned scales, silver eyes, and golden horns. In appearance, they were much more normal than the many Devil Forms and strange creatures Li Fan had seen before, and their might was nowhere near that of Real Person Wanshu's Dharma Form.
But they were actual dragons, for crying out loud! At least to Li Fan, that was hugely significant! Seeing a real dragon with his own eyes made this trip more than worthwhile!
"Li Fan's mood increased by 1 point."
Seeing how excited Li Fan was, Lu Yu didn't think much of it. He just assumed that, coming from the Human Dao, Li Fan was thrilled to see a large spirit beast for the first time. Turning to the other two boys, he said, "We won't go to the Li River today. Magistrate Wen complained to the temple master that these four long worms have eaten all the fish and shrimp in the river, and all the cattle and sheep along its banks. The people of Li Country are up in arms."
Yuan Xuanbao frowned. "Didn't we compensate them at the agreed price? Why are they still making false accusations?"
Chen Daotong laughed. "The magistrate's just using us as an excuse to pay less tribute. We'll skip the east, then. How about letting them forage in the Mount Buzhou region to the north?"
Lu Yu nodded. "I was thinking the same thing."
Li Fan's ears perked up. Reluctantly pulling his gaze away from the real dragons, he asked, "Mount Buzhou?"
"Mount Buzhou is unclaimed land northwest of Bamboo Mountain." Lu Yu knew Li Fan wasn't familiar with the cultivation world, so he explained. "It lies where the three great powers—the Immortal Palace, the Xuan Sect God Sect, and the Xuan Sect—meet. It was an ancient battlefield. It's been peaceful for a long time now, and the three powers rarely fight or battle with their magic. Many ancient immortal ruins in Mount Buzhou have also given rise to all kinds of Devil Forms and strange beasts.
"We don't need to go far in. We can let these little worms forage on their own in the area near Bamboo Mountain. They've grown quite large, and they can handle ordinary demonic beasts and monsters by themselves. That'll also keep them from stealing livestock all the time."
"Understood."
Yuan Xuanbao shook his silver bell. The four Coiled Dragons swimming through the ravine raised their heads together and soared into the clouds. They breathed out four rain clouds flecked with glimpses of azure scales, then chased after the flying boat toward the northwest.
Li Fan ran to the stern to watch the dragons again, while asking Profound Heaven Sword Intent about the cultivation world's geography in his mind. Mount Buzhou had come up, after all. He was dying to know more! Come on, Sword Intent, draw me a map!
"Profound Heaven Sword Intent says it can't."
What? You're a sword sect's founding patriarch, probably a sword immortal who reached the Dao or ascended to immortality, and you don't even know the geography? Where is the Beichen Sword Sect, then? Surely you know how to find your way there?
Figures. There was a reason this guy had been trapped for five hundred years. He was hopelessly directionless...
"Profound Heaven Sword Intent says the cultivation world is vast and sparsely populated. Normally, people use Divine Sense to sense nearby fellow cultivators, then fly their swords in roughly the right direction. They'll arrive in no time. What would they need a map for?"
Is this Divine Sense some kind of radar? How can it be so useful?
"Profound Heaven Sword Intent says the host can practice the Outline of the Secret Cultivation of the Taiyin Five Luo Sword Ghosts. Close your eyes and visualize the Five Luo Sword Ghosts, then use Divine Sense to observe those four little dragons as training. You don't need to gather Qi and form actual sword ghosts. If you can produce Divine Sense and see through the dragons hidden in the clouds, you've succeeded."
Oh? That sounds interesting.
Li Fan got started at once. He casually tore off a piece of silk and blindfolded himself, then followed Profound Heaven Sword Intent's instructions.
The Taiyin Five Luo Sword was originally a Cultivation Method for forming a Golden Core after Foundation Establishment. Broadly speaking, it involved refining five elemental sword ghosts within the body, allowing one to focus on five things at once and control five streams of sword Qi—or even five flying swords—simultaneously. There were plenty of similar methods, and Profound Heaven Sword Intent didn't think this one was anything special. Its one advantage was that it ultimately allowed the cultivator to refine a Divine Treasury Golden Core and control ghosts and swords.
A Divine Treasury Golden Core was a Golden Core hidden in the Divine Courtyard acupoint atop the head. That was rather rare, since most Cultivation Methods formed a Qi Treasury Golden Core in the Qi Sea of one's Inner Landscape. So what advantage did a Divine Treasury Golden Core have over a Qi Treasury Golden Core?
"Profound Heaven Sword Intent says: Of course it has its advantages! Say you're in the middle of a sword duel and someone chops off your head with one strike. Your opponent crushes your body with golden light, thinking they've destroyed your Golden Body and captured your head. They're about to interrogate you for your sect's secrets, and then you can laugh and say, 'Ha! Didn't see that coming, did you?' Then you spit out a flying sword and kill them."
Holy crap, Sword Intent, you're vicious... And were people really that ruthless in your era? You call getting your head chopped off in a sword duel something that happens often enough to be described as routine?
"Profound Heaven Sword Intent says the host probably hasn't even killed a chicken. Changing one's fate against Heaven is a bloody road. I recommend finding a chance soon to kill a couple of Fiend Gods and toughen up."
Good grief. I thought you were going to say I should kill a couple of chickens to toughen up. You want me to toughen up by killing a couple of Fiend Gods? Come on. I don't know if those Non-Things really are the Heavenly Dao, but this world's Postnatal Immortal Dao probably isn't a righteous path at all...
Whatever. Li Fan couldn't be bothered to banter anymore. He wasn't at the point where he needed to toughen up like that yet. For now, he'd focus on cultivating.
To practice the Taiyin Five Luo Sword, one first had to visualize the sword ghosts described in the method within the Divine Courtyard, then establish a distinction between "the other" and "oneself." Once the "other ghost" came to life and could control sword Qi by itself, one would also cultivate "self-awareness" and be able to focus on two things at once, controlling the sword ghost.
Of course, the sword ghosts needed true Qi to take shape. Li Fan hadn't even reached Foundation Establishment yet, so where would he get true Qi to nourish them? He could only cultivate "self-awareness" for now, getting an early taste of Divine Sense.
As expected—well, at least as Profound Heaven Sword Intent had expected—Li Fan very smoothly separated "the other" from "himself" and cultivated a trace of Divine Sense.
"Profound Heaven Sword Intent says the host's ability to face the Dao Ancestor head-on wasn't just luck. The host's Divine Sense is abnormally powerful—almost perverted."
Li Fan frowned.
Come on. Being able to withstand that whatever-Dao-ancestor was clearly the system's doing, wasn't it? System, what did you tell Sword Intent?
"The host is a pervert."
Damn... Forget it. You two can squabble all you want. I'm exhausted.
Li Fan couldn't be bothered with the two clowns. He tried using the tiny bit of Divine Sense he'd just cultivated to look around.
It felt a bit like switching from a first-person view in a game to a third-person view that could look around freely. Except this kind of "seeing" was really visualization, and what he "saw" was the Five Qi constantly flowing through everything: purple, white, gold, green, and red. Their colored radiance circulated through nature, endlessly renewing itself. Within this natural cycle, a cultivator's true Qi moved through an independent cycle in the Inner Landscape, utterly at odds with the great Dao between Heaven and Earth. That made it especially easy to distinguish.
Of course, Li Fan's vision still had a limited range. Producing Divine Sense at the Qi Refining Stage was already abnormal enough. There was no way he could see very far. In fact, he couldn't even see beyond the flying boat, let alone spot the dragons in the clouds.
Still, when Li Fan swept his Divine Sense around, he "saw" the other two boys fighting on the foredeck.
Ahem, not that there was anything else going on, all right? Don't jump to conclusions just because they were Dual Cultivation Dao companions. Strictly speaking, they were sparring.
Chen Daotong's weapons were clearly infused with Dao Breath. Li Fan could just barely make out their shape: a pair of hand axes. They were like double-headed daggers with a perpendicular handle mounted at the center, a little like mantis blades strapped to both hands. They could be used to stab like daggers or fight like knuckle guards, but were mainly meant for throwing. Somehow, they could even be pulled back by the Qi Breath, much like a sword art.
Yuan Xuanbao wielded a much rarer weapon. At the end of a thin rod was an iron hand. When he swung it, its index and middle fingers stuck out, making it look like a climbing pick. But it seemed to have a mechanism: without warning, all five fingers could spread into a claw to snatch an opponent's weapon. More interestingly, the hand-shaped weapon could also form hand seals and manipulate the surrounding spiritual Qi. It was pretty imaginative.
Neither of them used spells. They fought purely as men, clashing head-on with weapons.
They fought as if their relationship as Dao companions meant nothing, showing each other no mercy. They swung their sharp iron weapons with clangs and crashes, holding nothing back. Sparks flew as metal struck metal. Their movements were as swift as rabbits darting from their holes and birds taking flight. They moved side to side, dodging and weaving with quick, nimble steps. After all, a moment's hesitation could leave one of them with a flying axe through the skull or a pick through the head. Yet neither showed any sign of tension. Their faces were expressionless, their breaths calm and steady as they fought as if it were an ordinary training session.
What was this?
"Profound Heaven Sword Intent says they're practicing martial arts."
I know they're practicing martial arts! I'm asking why they're practicing martial arts!
Profound Heaven Sword Intent seemed to freeze at the question. It took a long while to answer.
"Profound Heaven Sword Intent says that if you master martial arts... you won't get killed?"
No, aren't you cultivators? Where are the flying swords? The spells? At the very least, shouldn't they be clashing swords? Why did this suddenly jump from immortal fantasy to practical weapon combat?
Now Profound Heaven Sword Intent understood what Li Fan was really asking.
"Profound Heaven Sword Intent says the host has misunderstood. This is a proper military Body Domination technique, a form of combat cultivation passed down since ancient times in the armies of the Twelve Countries of the Human Dao.
"Each weapon has its own training methods, matched with specific breathing chants and techniques for exerting force. It's also an excellent method for strengthening bones and tempering the body, transforming the flesh into a Body Domination physique comparable to the Foundation Establishment Stage. And needless to say, it also teaches powerful practical combat skills.
"Back then, the sect master of the Xuan Sect God Sect wanted to catch up with the other powers. He planned to train mortals into an army, gathering martial arts from the Human Dao and military combat methods from each country, discarding the useless parts and refining them into this miraculous Body Domination technique. Heavenly Treasures were scarce back then, and plenty of ordinary cultivators lacked the talent to cultivate immortality. Many joined the God Sect to practice this technique, producing a large number of experts almost overnight and helping the God Sect claim one of the three shares of the realm.
"Body Domination requires years of steady effort and constant training of the bones and muscles. It demands hard work, and its progress is so slow that even Immortal Dao cultivation seems fast by comparison. If mortals of the Human Dao persevere, those with talent may reach the Divine Essence Body Stage, comparable to the Golden Core Stage. But mortals have limited lifespans, and few martial cultivators in the Twelve Countries persevere. Now that the Heavenly Dao has changed so much, I doubt the nobles and military families still practice this technique.
"Cultivators, on the other hand, are well suited to practicing Body Domination. That way, before they form a Golden Core, they won't be left completely helpless if they run out of Dao Breath. Those two boys are probably using Body Domination to drive out the baleful energy they picked up during Moon Worship and stabilize their Foundation Establishment cultivation."
So he didn't need to practice it, then. His own cultivation was rock-solid. With the Qiankun Flying Dragon Sword at his command, he could easily kill those two with unstable foundations.
"Profound Heaven Sword Intent says the host should stop joking. You don't even dare kill a chicken. Even if you were at the same level as those two boys, you wouldn't hit them on your first try, and they'd kill you in three moves."
Li Fan was momentarily speechless. He could put up a brave front, but he knew Profound Heaven Sword Intent was right.
Well, of course. He'd come from a peaceful era. Even pointing at a group of monkeys and killing them had made him feel sick. How could he fight cultivators who'd practiced martial arts and killed people since childhood?
Then maybe Sword Intent could teach him a couple of Body Domination moves to practice?
"Profound Heaven Sword Intent says it can't. This venerable one was a peerless prodigy. With a lucid Sword Intent, I could flick a finger and send ten thousand swords flying to slay all the gods and buddhas in the sky. Even if someone mastered Body Domination to the supreme level, what would it matter? A flash of my Sword Light would be enough to kill them. What's the point of practicing trash like that?"
...Wait, weren't you the one who just said I wouldn't last three moves against them, even with the Qiankun Flying Dragon Sword?
"Profound Heaven Sword Intent says the host has misunderstood. I could kill even Nascent Soul and Divine Transformation cultivators with the Qiankun Flying Dragon Sword. The host is just too soft-hearted. You can't even slap someone to death, so what chance do you have against those two weaklings?"
Only a lunatic could do something like that!
"Profound Heaven Sword Intent says the host needn't worry. With me around, why learn some trash technique to fight trash? Now that you can produce Divine Sense, I'll teach you the most powerful ultimate move of the Beichen Sword Sect! A move that kills gods and buddhas alike!"
Holy crap! Are you serious? You're hyping this up so much that I'm getting excited! Hurry up and tell me what this amazing move is!
"Profound Heaven Sword Intent says the move is called 'Kill Gods, Kill Buddhas.' You refine Sword Light into your eyes, then kill someone with a single glance. That way, I guarantee the host won't have a chance to go soft-hearted. How's that? Impressive, right?"
...System, take a look at the antisocial maniacs you've signed up...
Before you continue